At the dawn of the new millennium, the then Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, was faced with a dilemma. In less than two decades his country would exhaust its main source of income: oil. He needed a solution and he needed it fast.
He decided to make Dubai the number one luxury tourist destination in the world and triple the influx of tourists from 5 million per year to a whopping 15 million. This was not an entirely implausible idea. The crown prince had built the world-famous and only 7-star Burj Al Arab hotel, as well as world-class golf and racing courses, all quite remarkable, especially considering that half a century earlier it had been a modest market town built in a stream
It helped that Dubai has excellent weather virtually year-round and long stretches of soft-sand beaches dotting its coastline. The only problem was that the coastline was originally only 72 km long, which is certainly not enough to handle the large influx of tourists the Crown Prince envisioned.
But here was the key to Sheikh Mohammed’s vision. He often encourages us to think big. Sheikh Mohammed does not think big. He thinks in MEGA proportions. His plan was to create a paradise island off the coast of Dubai in the shape of a palm tree. This artificial island would increase the coastline by 56 km.
Nothing of this size or shape had ever been done before and to add to the challenge, for the island to blend in with its surroundings, he wanted the island to be built entirely from natural materials: sand and rock. Robert Berger, project manager from 2000 to 2004, said:
“When I first heard about this project, I didn’t think it could be done. It’s amazing.” And he added: “If God had wanted an island to be built in the shape of a palm tree, he would have built it.”
I smiled when I heard that because if you believe that God or your equivalent exists in each and every one of us, maybe that’s exactly what God was doing.
A project of this scale needed the best engineers in the world. Some of these were in the Netherlands, where Dutch engineers increased the land mass of the Netherlands through land reclamation by 35%.
Sheikh Mohammed stipulated that the palm island must be made only from natural materials and that it was nature itself that would constantly be the biggest challenge for the developer. To protect the fragile island from the worst waves, particularly those generated during intense winter storms, when winds could reach 56 km per hour and waves could reach 2 m in height, the island needed to be protected by a breakwater. . Furthermore, while some scientists and politicians were still debating whether Global Warming was actually a real phenomenon, the researchers on this project factored into their equations the extent to which water levels would rise as a result of Global Warming. Nothing could be left to chance, once the island was built it needed to stay in place.
Fortunately, the Arabian Gulf was the ideal location for this proposed structure. It is too shallow for the formation of the huge waves that could engulf and swallow the island. The researchers calculated that the breakwater would have to be at least 3 m above the waves and 11½ km long.
If you thought the stakes were high, it was about to rise even higher. The developers wanted to start work on The Palm Jumeriah before all the research was complete. Although years of research and benchmark studies had been carried out, this was still a risky undertaking. There were so many variables in this project and unknown variables in it. If the researchers were wrong, the island could literally be razed to the ground, but the developers were working under an incredibly tight schedule. They had to create an island from scratch, install its entire infrastructure (gas, electricity, water, roads, etc.), and build luxury villas, shops, and hotels, all by 2006. Roger Berger said that:
“Perhaps this is the only place in the world where you can do something like this. Have the vision and the courage to see it through.”
Work on Phase 1 of the project began in August 2001, and then something happened that shook the world to its core: 9/11.
This was one of those unknown parameters that no one could have prepared for. People didn’t want to travel, let alone travel to the Middle East, and suddenly the idea of building a luxury tourist destination in Dubai seemed almost far-fetched. Dubai itself ground to a halt as fear and panic spread through the world like shock waves from an earthquake.
In the midst of it all, one man in particular was calm and determined. I guess logic dictated that trust would eventually be restored and if trust didn’t win, the challenge would. Sheikh Mohammed wanted to be ready when that time came and the developers had already invested millions of dollars in this project. The project would continue. It was a bold and wise move.
Another challenge came from the need to build the breakwater and the island simultaneously. If the breakwater was completed before the island, it would cut off access to the site. On the other hand, if the island moved ahead of the breakwater, it would be exposed to the elements. Teamwork here was not only desirable, it was absolutely crucial. The breakwater team and the island team had to work together in total synchronicity and given the scale and complexity of the project, as well as the daily changing parameters of this project, to say that it was not an easy task is an understatement.
And did I mention that nothing like this has ever been done before? All the engineers had impeccable pedigrees having worked on some of the world’s largest and most complex projects, such as Hong Kong’s acclaimed Chek Lap Kok airport designed by British architect Sir Norman Foster, but the Palm Island project outshone them all.
State-of-the-art technology was used to create The Palm Jumeirah. Global Positioning Systems or, to be more precise, Differential Global Positioning Systems were used to measure whether the island with its 17 leaves was taking the shape it should. The world’s first privately owned high-resolution satellite was used in this exercise. The satellite orbits the earth 14 times a day and is responsible for the excellent images that helped engineers ensure the sand was measured to within 1cm and helped capture the imagination of people around the world.
In fact, people were so excited about this project that its capacity was doubled from 60 thousand to 120 thousand. Despite all the challenges, Palm Jumeirah has risen spectacularly from the sea; it is a triumph of modern engineering, visionary leadership, great teamwork and precise decision-making.
Some of you may be thinking, “The developers of this project had a lot of money, so it was easy for them to conceptualize and create a project of this magnitude. Think in MEGA terms, anyone can have MEGA dreams.
I was reading a story about John Maclean, who was paralyzed after a car accident when he was just 22: one minute he was an athletic young man, the next he was fighting for his life.
When he began his rehab, he was swimming two strokes and was so exhausted that he had to be carried out of the therapy pool and back to his room. He was asleep before his head could hit the pillow. For John Maclean, making those two strokes was a great achievement, but nothing compared to the goal he had set for himself: to swim across the English Channel. This was something no wheelchair athlete had ever done before and is a feat of endurance that even relatively few able-bodied people attempt.
To have any chance of achieving this goal day after day, he had to push himself, overcome his fatigue, develop new neuromuscular pathways to persuade his battered body to accept his stubborn will. He also built a phenomenal team around him: people who accepted his vision.
And so it was, in 1998 and less than two weeks after his first attempt, John Maclean finally achieved his goal and completed the Strenuous Channel swim in 12 hours and 55 minutes. This is just one of many impressive sporting achievements of his.
So don’t be afraid to dream big, really big. If you hold on to your vision and push yourself a little harder each day than you have ever gone before, while continually adjusting to your increased awareness and new conditions, you too can achieve MEGA goals. Its results, unlike Palm Jumeirah, may not be visible from space, but a new star could be visible from the ground.